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Te Interweaving Treads of Peace Psychology by Rachel M. MacNair Peace psychology can be defned as "the study of mental processes that lead to violence, that prevent violence, and that facilitate nonviolence as well as promoting fairness, respect, and dignity for all, for the purpose of making violence a less likely occurrence and helping to heal its psychological effects" (MacNair, 2003). Another defnition is that "peace psychology seeks to develop theories and practices aimed at the prevention and mitigation of direct and structural violence. Framed positively, peace psychology promotes the nonviolent management of confict and the pursuit of social justice, what we refer to as peacemaking and peacebuilding, respectively" (Christie, Wagner, & Winter, 2000). Tough peace psychology has links within all branches of psychology, there are especially strong links to social psychology, political psychology, community psychology, and positive psychology. Peace psychologists have developed a number of themes over the years. Te psychological causes of war and other forms of violence is one such theme, as well as the psychological consequences. Along with these are the causes and consequences of behavior intended to counter violence, commonly referred to as nonviolence or nonviolent action. Other remedies to violent behavior include peace education and confict resolution. In early years, focus was on international affairs. Trough time those interested in peace psychology have more commonly thought that other forms of violence are precursors to war, share with war many of the same causes and consequences, and are threats to peace even in the absence of outright war. Tese include domestic violence, hate crimes, the death penalty, abuses of medicine, and institutional arrangements which foster poverty or environmental degradation. Roots Most historians of psychology trace the founding of modern psychology to a specifc event, Wilhelm Wundt's establishing the frst experimental laboratory in 1879. Yet psychology has philosophical roots going back to ancient times. In the same way, historians of peace psychology can cite the essay of William James, Te Moral Equivalent of War, as an event that launched the sub-discipline of peace Interweaving Treads of Peace Psychology 2 Rachel M. MacNair psychology. Yet peace psychology builds on long- standing musings about the mental processes and behavior of war and peace. In ancient Judah and Israel, several prophets proposed (to put it in psychological terms) that the cause of war was continued adherence to unhealthy social norms which included exploitation of the poor, greed, lying, and worship of multiple gods that approved such behavior. Tey advocated that establishment of peace required adherence to standards of behavior that were universal and involved justice, care for the poor and attention to only one divine authority. In ancient India, Siddartha Gotama Buddha (c. 563-c. 483 BC) proposed that suffering was caused by desires, and peace would be found through the discipline of detachment. He offered several principles, including compassion and nonviolence, as essential to the individual's spiritual well-being. In the 200s BC, a war-prone king named Ashoka converted to the Buddhist point of view with an immediate effect of establishing a much more peaceful kingdom in his portion of India. In ancient China, Confucius (c. 551- c. 471 BC) proposed that war came from disharmony and would be best remedied when individuals conform to an ideal harmonious and hierarchical social order. By contrast, Lao Tse (c. 604 - c. 531 BC) offered the Tao Te Ching, which suggested individuals should ignore social dictates and seek to be in tune with the patterns of the universe involving balance, harmony, and compassion. Te ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes (c. 447 - c. 380 BC) suggested in his play Lysistrata that the psychology of war was that of the arrogance of men and their lust for political power. Te play was a comedy in which the women of the opposing sides, lacking the same arrogance, coordinated a sex strike to stop the fghting. First-century Middle Eastern Christian writer James, one of three leaders in the Jerusalem Church, author of an epistle, and by tradition the brother of Jesus, proposed as a psychological cause of war that people had excessive desires for material wealth or prestige that they could not get, and that people were bent on murder when envious and wanting something they cannot have (James 4:1-2). In the same era, people circulated Gospels and letters for the new movement which recommended loving one's enemies, character development, charity works, Interweaving Treads of Peace Psychology 3 Rachel M. MacNair spiritual disciplines, human equality and concern for the poor, acceptance of martyrdom if necessary, and other practices which relate to establishing peace. More recently, seventeenth-century Czech education reformer Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) proposed that the means to peace is education which is international and universal. Beginning in 1628, he published a series of books on educating for understanding between countries of different religions, languages, and ways of life. He argued that all should be educated with universally-shared knowledge regardless of gender or social class. He was invited to several European countries to help reform schools, and earned the title "Teacher of Nations." Early nineteenth-century English Quaker writer Jonathan Dymond (1796-1828) wrote a treatise on the causes and effects of war, collecting and articulating in a coherent framework the ideas of many Quakers and other pacifsts of the time (Dymond, 1824). He used philosophical reasoning that foreshadows many current psychological concepts. Quotations from his work could be used to illustrate, among other things, the psychological dynamics of arms races, the effect of war on violent behavior of a community afer it is over, the pressures of destructive obedience to authority, habits and associations, the sequential steps or "slippery slope," the dynamics of noncooperation, stress causing over-simplifed thinking in policy-makers, and even the use of war as a diversion from scandal as portrayed more recently in the Hollywood movie Wag the Dog (Levinson, 1998). Peace psychologists developed each of these themes throughout the twentieth century with psychological research. In 1905, American writer Mark Twain wrote the short story called "Te War Prayer." Tis is still used as a classic literary description of the phenomenon of "war hysteria," a colloquial term for a state of mind which is enthusiastic about war, ignores its predictable effects, oversimplifes both the villainy of the enemy and the issues involved in the dispute, and uses reasoning starkly different from everyday life, making it puzzling to those not caught up in its emotion. Later psychologists like William James (1910) and Lawrence LeShan (1992) tried to defne further and explain the phenomenon. Mark Twain also proposed that greed was a motivation toward war in his parody of "Te Battle Hymn of the Republic." (Both Twain works can be found in Anderson, 1972). Interweaving Treads of Peace Psychology 4 Rachel M. MacNair Early Days As previously mentioned, William James wrote the classic essay Te Moral Equivalent of War in 1910. James was of course prominent in establishing the feld of psychology and wrote what has become a classic introductory textbook, Te Principles of Psychology (1890) which had widespread use for decades. With this essay, James also set the stage for the sub-discipline of peace psychology, though the term was not yet current. Te essay argues that the aspects of war that make it psychologically appealing should be replaced by nonviolent alternatives that achieve the same appeal. James identifed six such aspects. One was pride in one's self coming from belonging to and helping a greater group. Tis gives a sense of vitality as part of a vast undertaking. Te second was that war can give meaning and purpose to an otherwise boring life. Tirdly, it can allow for projection of self- doubts or self- hatred onto someone else. Anxieties are re-directed to a more comfortable target. Fourth, group cohesion improves when faced with an external threat. Arguments stop when there is a common enemy. When the war is over, quarrels return. Many remember fondly the sense of unity. Fifh, some admirable virtues are involved. Tese include discipline, courage, and self-sacrifce for the greater good. People like to think of themselves as having and demonstrating such qualities. Finally, the anxiety of uncertainty vanishes when war hysteria arrives. Later peace psychologists have further developed each of these concepts. Te development of the nonviolent alternatives has also continued throughout the twentieth century. Vast grassroots movements provided the experience necessary for more sophisticated theoretical developments. In fact, if the current population of all the countries which were touched by major nonviolent movements in the twentieth century were added together, the fgure would be almost three billion people, or 64% of humanity (Wink, 1998, pp. 116-117), providing a rich base for studies that are still on-going. Meanwhile, early luminaries of psychology had their own activities relating to peace behavior. For example, Ivan Pavlov, famous for experiments on conditioned responses, in 1930 promoted a petition arguing "that the present armament policies do not furnish any safety to the peoples of the world and in fact, lead all nations to economic disaster. Tat this policy makes a new war inevitable. Tat in the future every war will be a war of extermination. Tat the declaration of peace in behalf of governments remain futile as long as these governments keep on delaying Interweaving Treads of Peace Psychology 5 Rachel M. MacNair disarmament, which should be the logical sequel to renouncing war" (Nathan & Norden. 1968, p. 106). Also being developed in this time period was the idea that a major part of establishing peace required education for peace. As early as 1912, Maria Montessori starting publishing a series of books in various languages on her teaching method.